Social Media and Your Business
By Cynthia Hurtado, Intern
Many business owners I know ask me for social media advice since I’m a millennial and have had some experience in the field. Truth of the matter is, not all businesses belong on all social media channels. There are a few businesses that have thrived across all forms of social media and some that have simply failed. Many companies seem to think that they should be on every platform for maximum exposure and they couldn’t be more wrong. So how do you decide where to take your content and your message? Deciding what platform works best for your brand is hard. These three tips however, will help narrow down where your company should be in order to reach the best audience and become more successful on social media.
Demographic
The first step to figuring out what social media platform best fits your business needs is to ask yourself who is it that you are trying to reach? And where is it that they are most active in terms of social media? I usually advise business owners to stick to two platforms that work for them, maybe three, in order to avoid overloading their audience and to keep things manageable and original. The platforms you ultimately end up using should be the ones where you will reach the majority of people who are interested in your type of product or service, as well as ones where your brand can easily be found.
Product/Service
After figuring out the target demographic for your business, it is always a good idea to ask yourself if your product/service belongs on that specific site. For example, a general consumer product can easily be on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram. For a more niche product, Facebook will work, and depending on the type of business so will Instagram, maybe Tumblr or Snapchat for a more of a behind the scenes angle. It all really depends on the type of business and the identified goals.
Purpose
What is your message, what do you hope to gain? Social media essentially keeps a company and the public connected. It is a tool that can help reach goals. However, you don’t want to take your message or your purpose to the wrong site or else no one will listen, so choose wisely.
Conclusion
In the end, social media works best for a business when it is narrowed down to the most applicable platforms. Instead of having an open account with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube and so on, it is easier to have two to three channels that are regularly updated and have original content than to have all platforms and be repeating posts or not be using them at all. The best part of only having two to three sites is that you can engage with your audience more effectively since it is more manageable.
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